Conventionally, an emission type electronic display device includes an electroluminescence display (hereinafter, referred to as an ELD). A constituent element of ELD includes such as an inorganic electroluminescent element and an organic electroluminescent element (hereinafter, referred to as an organic EL element). An inorganic electroluminescent element has been utilized as a flat light source, however, requires a high voltage of alternating current to operate an emission element. An organic electroluminescent element is an element provided with a constitution comprising an emission layer containing a emitting substance being sandwiched with a cathode and an anode, and an exciton is generated by an electron and a positive hole being injected into the emission layer to be recombined, resulting emission utilizing light release (fluorescence•phosphorescence) at the time of deactivation of said exciton; the emission is possible at a voltage of approximately a few to a few tens volts, and an organic electroluminescent element is attracting attention with respect to such as superior viewing angle and high visual recognition due to a self-emission type as well as space saving and portability due to a completely solid element of a thin layer type.
However, in an organic electroluminescence in view of the future practical application, desired has been development of an organic EL element which efficiently emits at a high luminance with a low electric consumption.
In Japanese Patent No. 3093796, a slight amount of a fluorescent substance has been doped in a stilbene derivative, distilylarylene derivative or a tristilylarylene derivative, to achieve improved emission luminance and a prolonged life of an element. Further, there are known such as an element having an organic emission layer comprising a 8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum complex as a host compound which is doped with a slight amount of a fluorescent substance (for example, JP-A 63-264692 (hereinafter, JP-A refers to Japanese Patent Publication Open to Public Inspection No.)) and an element having an organic emission layer comprising a 8-hydroxyquinoline aluminum complex as a host compound which is doped with quinacridone type dye (for example, JP-A 3-255190).
In the case of utilizing emission from an excited singlet as described above, since a generation ratio of a singlet exciton to a triplet exciton is 1/3, that is, a generation probability of an emitting exciton species is 25% and a light taking out efficiency is approximately 20%, the limit of a quantum efficiency (ηext) of taking out is said to be 5%.
However, since an organic EL element which utilizes phosphorescence from an excited triplet has been reported from Princeton University (M. A. Baldo et al., Nature vol. 395, pp. 151-154 (1998)), researches on materials exhibiting phosphorescence at room temperature have come to be active.
For example, it is also disclosed in A. Baldo et al., Nature, vol. 403, No. 17, pp. 750-753 (2000), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,147.
Since the upper limit of internal quantum efficiency becomes 100% by utilization of an excited triplet, which is principally 4 times of the case of an excited singlet, it may be possible to achieve almost the same ability as a cooled cathode ray tube to attract attention also for an illumination application.
For example, in such as S. Lamansky et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 123, p. 4304 (2001), many compounds mainly belonging to heavy metal complexes such as iridium complexes have been synthesized and studied.
Further, in aforesaid, A. Baldo et al., Nature, vol. 403, No. 17, pp. 750-753 (2000), utilization of tris(2-phenylpyridine)iridium as a dopant has been studied.
In addition to these, M. E. Tompson et al., at The 10th International Workshops on Inorganic and Organic Electroluminescence (EL'00, Hamamatsu), have studied to utilize L2Ir(acac) such as (ppy)2Ir(acac) as a dopant, Moon-Jae Youn. Og., Tetsuo Tsutsui et al., also at The 10th International Workshops on Inorganic and Organic Electroluminescence (EL'00, Hamamatsu), have studied utilization of such as tris(2-(p-toluyl)pyridine)iridium (Ir(ptpy)3) and tris(benzo[h]quinoline)iridium (Ir(bzq)3) (herein, these metal complexes are generally referred to as orthometalized iridium complexes.).
Further, in also the aforesaid, S. Lamansky et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., vol. 123, p. 4304 (2001), studies have been carried out to prepare an element utilizing various types of iridium complexes.
Further, to obtain high emission efficiency, Ikai et al., at The 10th International Workshops on Inorganic and Organic Electroluminescence (EL'00, Hamamatsu) utilized a hole transporting compound as a host of a phosphorescent compound. Further, M. E. Tompson et al. utilized various types of electron transporting materials as a host of a phosphorescent compound doped with a new iridium complex.
An orthometalated complex provided with platinum instead of iridium as a center metal is also attracting attention. With respect to these types of complexes, many examples having a characteristic ligand are known (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1-5 and Non-Patent Document 1.).
In any case, emission luminance and emission efficiency are significantly improved compared to conventional elements because the emitting light arises from phosphorescence, however, there has been a problem of a poor emission life of the element compared to conventional elements. It is hard to achieve an emission of a short wavelength and an improvement of an emission life of the element for a phosphorescent emission material provided with a high efficiency. At present state, it cannot be achieved a level of a practical use.
With respect to shortening of emission wavelength, heretofore, there have been known introduction of an electron attracting group such as a fluorine atom, a trifluoromethyl group, or a cyano group as a substituent group into phenylpyridine, and introduction of a ligand of such as picolinic acid or of a pyrazabole type. However, when an emission wavelength is shortened to achieve blue color by utilizing these substitution effects, a high efficiency may be achieved while emission life will be greatly deteriorated, which requires further improvement to overcome the trade-off relationship.
As a ligand, known are metal complexes having phenylpyrazole in which the phenyl group undergoes substitution (refer, for example, to Patent Documents 1 and 2). In the substitution mode of the phenyl group of phenylpyrazole, which is disclosed in the above, the lifetime of the luminescent element is improved but is still insufficient. Further, in view of luminescent efficiency, much room for improvement still remains. On the other hand, it has been known that ligands having a substituent exhibiting steric hindrance are appropriate for improvement of Luminance, and there are examples of application to the phenylpyrazole mother nucleus (refer, for example, to Patent Document 3).
Examples of metal complexes, in which phenylimidazole as a ligand is employed as a basic skeleton, are disclosed (refer, for example, to Patent Documents 4, 5, and 7). In the above patent documents, described is luminescent wavelength, driving characteristics of the elements, external quantum efficiency, and chromaticity, but not specifically described is the lifetime of the luminescent elements.
Further disclosed are examples of luminescent elements incorporating metal complexes in which phenylimidazole, phenyltriazole, or phenyltetrazole is employed as a basic skeleton (refer to Patent Document 6). In above patent document, the driving characteristics of elements, external quantum efficiency, and chromaticity are described, but the lifetime of luminescent elements is not specifically described.
[Patent Document 1] WO 04/085450
[Patent Document 2] JP-A 2005-53912
[Patent Document 3] JP-A 2003-109758
[Patent Document 4] WO 05/007767
[Patent Document 5] JP-A 2005-68110
[Patent Document 6] U.S.-A 2006-0008670
[Patent Document 7] WO 06/009024